President For a Thought

With the date of the passing of the presidential torch from current UB President William R. Greiner to newcomer John P. Simpson drawing near, some students put some thought into one question: "What would I do if I were the president of UB?"

With influence over every aspect of the largest university in the SUNY system, the president of UB has an enormous amount of responsibility.

Some students tried to put the task of managing the university into perspective according to their priorities.

"I would change the libraries," said Tindal. "There are not enough computers for the amount of students that go here."

Unlike Tindal, whose quick answers gave the impression that they had pondered the question before, other students said the idea was too overwhelming to consider.

"I don't know what I'd do, because it's so much power, it's hard to think about," said undecided freshman major Ashica Ambu.

Greiner, the man currently in power, said he had an extensive agenda of items he wanted to address when he first stepped into the presidency in 1991.

Greiner said some of his goals were to improve school pride and to make North campus more residential and that most of his goals have been accomplished.

"I hoped that we would grow and mature and develop at this (North) campus, sort of be more of a home for people than what it was," said Greiner. "We've tried to be excellent in everything that we do, but we don't try to do everything."

Doug Urban, a senior English major, said while UB placed an emphasis on North campus, if he were president South campus and surrounding areas might not have suffered neglect.

"I know that UB has a lot of draw economically, and it's a shame to see that it's taken out into Amherst, and basically everything is filtered out of the city," said Urban. "It's like its own community out in the suburbs and I tend to think that's a bad thing for the city of Buffalo. UB has the ability to help the city out, and they're not really doing that at all. It is kind of focusing on itself, rather than the surrounding community."

While Urban might disagree with the focus of Greiner's administration, other students believe he has done just what needed to be done and said they would take similar steps.

Second-year education graduate student, Jerrod Blair, said he has noticed many of the changes at UB during Greiner's tenure.

Blair has attended UB for the past six years, and applauds the focus on the students, and the change to division 1-A sports which gives the students more of a chance to "get pumped up about the sports," saying as president he would continue in the same direction.

Kristi Klier, sophomore English major, agreed that the university has been seemingly prosperous under Greiner's leadership.

"I don't see any major problems," said Klier. "I think it's fine the way it is, maybe just little things to make it better."

Klier added that she would "try to alleviate some of the parking problems" at UB.

Senior English major Rob Szustak said he would focus on departments such as music and art, which he said are not as prominent as they once were.

"Everybody knows (UB is) strong for math and for science," he said. "But not a lot of people come here for music."

From the diverse and valid suggestions for improvement that students made, it is clear that quite a bit responsibility lands on the shoulders of the president of UB; one might wonder why Greiner, or anyone, would accept the job to begin with

"It was sort of like Mount Everest," said Greiner. "It was there."